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Sports Illustrated profiles Frank Hall, Chardon's humble hero

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Frank Hall, an assistant football coach at Chardon High School, was named a Community Hero for chasing convicted shooter T.J. Lane from the high school building on February 27, 2012.
(Simon Bruty, Sports Illustrated)

CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Whenever Frank Hall speaks in front of churches and school groups, the crowd braces itself for his reflections on the day he saved lives during the shooting at Chardon High last year.

Instead, he starts with a fictional story about the media to lighten the mood.

"My wife would always answer my phone for me because all these people were calling -- Oprah, Anderson Cooper, you name it," he begins. "One day, Sports Illustrated called, and my wife hollers down to the basement, "Hey, it's Sports Illustrated." For guys my age, Sports Illustrated was "it" back in the day, before ESPN.

"I'm thinking this will be my only chance to get in Sports Illustrated. I get on the phone and the lady says, "I'd like to tell you about an exciting offer we have for a two-year subscription.' "

This spring, fiction became reality. Sports Illustrated did call, and they weren't selling anything. They wanted to share his story, and they sent acclaimed writer Gary Smith to spend a week with Hall.

Today on newsstands across the country, Hall is on the cover of Sports Illustrated, standing strong in a Chardon hallway as students rush by in a blur. It's the same hallway where Hall confronted and chased T.J. Lane out of the school after Lane fatally shot students Demetrius Hewlin, Russell King Jr., and Daniel Parmertor on Feb. 27, 2012.

Hall was stunned Monday when told he is on the cover.

"I'm on the cover? Wow. Are you sure?' " Hall said. "I kept telling Gary, 'My life isn't that interesting to write about.' I can't imagine how they put me on the cover of Sports Illustrated. That's pretty remarkable."

Hall was a monitor in the cafeteria where the shootings began. He first shared his story of what happened with The Plain Dealer last December for a series on local heroes. It was then he revealed that Lane took a shot at Hall, who dove behind a vending machine, and Hall continued the chase, preventing Lane from reloading or entering a classroom. Lane, who also shot and wounded three other students, pleaded guilty and was sentenced in March to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

Sports Illustrated sought out Hall this spring, a few months after a shooter killed 20 students and six adults at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn. Hall said in light of the Newtown shooting, he knew it was important people remember what happened in Chardon, which is why he agreed to the Sports Illustrated story.

"The thing I always want everyone to understand, the most important thing that happened that day was three young men lost their lives for no reason, and we need to fix that," Hall said. "We need to figure out how we can stop that. I don't want that to be lost in any kind of accolades I may get for what I did in that situation.

"The day that [Newtown shooting] happened, it was a rough day not just for me, but for all of us at Chardon. [Principal] Andy Fetchik took care of me that day, taking me out of class, so I could have some time to myself. We need to not forget. It seems we're almost becoming numb to it. We get 15 minutes of news media and move on with our lives. We can't let it stop being viewed as a tragedy, and Gary told me he wanted to shed light on the problems we're having in our schools."

Smith spent seven days with Hall and his family, who live in Ashtabula. Smith traditionally writes just four stories a year for Sports Illustrated, spending months on each subject. He previously profiled Magic Johnson, Tiger Woods and Pat Tillman, and his 1996 story "Someone to Lean On," inspired the movie "Radio."

Smith said he was unaware of the Chardon shooting until a younger writer at Sports Illustrated told him about Hall. Smith said he was drawn to the Chardon story and "the whole subject of guns in school and what we do about it and what we seem not to do about it, and here was a coach taking matters into his own hands. I wanted to lay the whole thing out for people and what it's like to live through a moment like that and leave readers with the question, 'Is the status quo fine?' "

Smith's eight-page story details the shooting from Hall's point of view, interweaving Hall's personal story that was inspirational before the shooting. Hall was a much loved fixture among students and football players at Chardon and this spring made the difficult decision to leave Chardon for Ashtabula Lakeside, to coach in his hometown and rebuild a football team that has been among Ohio's least successful in recent years.

"He's one of the those people you meet and 10 seconds later you can tell they're really a solid person and great guy. He's a very honest person," Smith said.

Beyond the Sports Illustrated story, Hall was eager to share more good news Monday. He and his wife, Ashley, are in the early stages of adopting a fifth child. They have four adopted sons who have had troubled backgrounds or physical disabilities.

"My wife has a knack of finding kids who need our help and can benefit from what we have to offer," he said. "This [Sports Illustrated] story isn't going to change my life. I'm pretty busy right now. I have football going on. We have varsity football minicamp and weight lifting on top of that. My son, Christian, just made the Little League All-Stars. I don't have the time to be famous or anything."

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